So, this weekend I was bored and staring at an old, dusty computer I had built years ago that really needed a cleaning. I usually keep the side panels off of my towers at home because the nerd in me wants to be able to walk around and see the hardware inside, and think "I built that." This thing had been particularly filthy for a long time, and I stare at it each day because it's the PC I use to make a smart TV out of my dumb one. Also, when I first built it (I don't know, like 4 or 5 years ago or more??) I was not into NVME M.2 drives like I am now. I recently purchased a cheap one and have been meaning to replace the SATA SSD inside for some additional speed (also, I just needed an excuse to reload a new operating system on it). Anyhow, I took the thing apart piece by piece and gave it a good cleaning with canned air and a damp sponge where appropriate, and then put it back together.
I'm a Debian fan, and have two other Debian towers, and like a lot of us I discovered Linux by way of Ubuntu, and then discovered Mint. I hadn't played with Mint in a while and I thought I'd try out the latest version. I decided to go the LMDE route and avoid the Ubuntu-based original for a couple of reasons (not particularly important here). So I made a bootable USB stick and put LMDE 6 "Faye" on it. It loaded fine and booted up and I use a 55" UHD TV as the screen for that tower, so it booted into 4k mode, which was really hard to see. Everything was so tiny. So I went in and tried to adjust the screen resolution to something easier to see. I chose the 1920x1080 (16:9) setting and it didn't work. The resolution was skewed on the screen, and clearly not correct. Long story short (too late) I tried several different things to get it to work, including tweaking the TV settings themselves, but nothing worked. I knew the problem was that old Nvidia card I had in there. Nvidia has historically not played well with Linux, and that's why most of us (myself included) usually go the AMD route. But I had built this thing years ago, and might have even had Windows on it at some point, and that's the card I'd gone with at the time. So, I knew I was going to have to update the driver.
The helpful Driver Manager feature included in the Ubuntu-based original version of Mint is not included in LMDE for some reason. I thought about googling some articles and reading up on how to get it done in the terminal, but you know what- I was just lazy, and this was supposed to be a leisurely Sunday afternoon activity for myself, and I just didn't want to put any more effort into it. So I created a bootable USB stick (again) this time with Mint 21.3 and booted that up. Same as before it went right to 4k mode, and reset it back down to 1920x1080 so I could see it better. On this (original) version it worked! It wasn't skewed, and the resolution was spot on. So I logged into YouTube and Amazon and started watching some Star Trek and old Simpsons episodes. I noticed some lag and a bit of choppiness, so I went into the Driver Manager after all, and switched off the Nouveau driver for a proprietary Nvidia one which was listed, available, and recommended. Instant success! I sat there for hours the rest of the afternoon admiring my build, watching "TV" and tweaking the settings on the desktop and other features.
So, I'm kinda telling on myself. I consider myself an intermediate to advanced Linux user, and I probably could have fixed the driver issue in the terminal if I'd had to, but I didn't want to. Instead I went the easy route and just switched from LMDE back to Mint original. It got me thinking, I wonder how many other people have chosen the original Mint over the Debian Edition for that reason, or similar reasons? So I thought I'd post my experience here and see what kind of feedback I get.
Why doesn't the Debian edition feature that wonderful GUI Driver Manager tool? From everything I've read and researched Mint and LMDE are supposed to be nearly identical. So I wonder why that feature isn't in the Debian Edition? What other reasons have people used to choose the original version over the Debian Edition (or vice-versa)? I'd love to hear some feedback.
Happy April everyone.
I'm a Debian fan, and have two other Debian towers, and like a lot of us I discovered Linux by way of Ubuntu, and then discovered Mint. I hadn't played with Mint in a while and I thought I'd try out the latest version. I decided to go the LMDE route and avoid the Ubuntu-based original for a couple of reasons (not particularly important here). So I made a bootable USB stick and put LMDE 6 "Faye" on it. It loaded fine and booted up and I use a 55" UHD TV as the screen for that tower, so it booted into 4k mode, which was really hard to see. Everything was so tiny. So I went in and tried to adjust the screen resolution to something easier to see. I chose the 1920x1080 (16:9) setting and it didn't work. The resolution was skewed on the screen, and clearly not correct. Long story short (too late) I tried several different things to get it to work, including tweaking the TV settings themselves, but nothing worked. I knew the problem was that old Nvidia card I had in there. Nvidia has historically not played well with Linux, and that's why most of us (myself included) usually go the AMD route. But I had built this thing years ago, and might have even had Windows on it at some point, and that's the card I'd gone with at the time. So, I knew I was going to have to update the driver.
The helpful Driver Manager feature included in the Ubuntu-based original version of Mint is not included in LMDE for some reason. I thought about googling some articles and reading up on how to get it done in the terminal, but you know what- I was just lazy, and this was supposed to be a leisurely Sunday afternoon activity for myself, and I just didn't want to put any more effort into it. So I created a bootable USB stick (again) this time with Mint 21.3 and booted that up. Same as before it went right to 4k mode, and reset it back down to 1920x1080 so I could see it better. On this (original) version it worked! It wasn't skewed, and the resolution was spot on. So I logged into YouTube and Amazon and started watching some Star Trek and old Simpsons episodes. I noticed some lag and a bit of choppiness, so I went into the Driver Manager after all, and switched off the Nouveau driver for a proprietary Nvidia one which was listed, available, and recommended. Instant success! I sat there for hours the rest of the afternoon admiring my build, watching "TV" and tweaking the settings on the desktop and other features.
So, I'm kinda telling on myself. I consider myself an intermediate to advanced Linux user, and I probably could have fixed the driver issue in the terminal if I'd had to, but I didn't want to. Instead I went the easy route and just switched from LMDE back to Mint original. It got me thinking, I wonder how many other people have chosen the original Mint over the Debian Edition for that reason, or similar reasons? So I thought I'd post my experience here and see what kind of feedback I get.
Why doesn't the Debian edition feature that wonderful GUI Driver Manager tool? From everything I've read and researched Mint and LMDE are supposed to be nearly identical. So I wonder why that feature isn't in the Debian Edition? What other reasons have people used to choose the original version over the Debian Edition (or vice-versa)? I'd love to hear some feedback.
Happy April everyone.
